Counting Stars
by KBelle1
Summary: Penelope unexpectedly gets caught up in the vampire world, after she and her bestfriend spend the evening at Fangtasia.
1. Chapter 1

When I wake up that morning for school, I groan. The last day of high school is only 5 days away. Graduation is a week after that. Waking up in the morning, though, is getting harder and harder. I roll over, and glare at the offensive alarm clock, contemplating how much time I have, and if I can afford to hit the snooze button. Deciding that I probably slept as long as I possibly could, I fling my legs over the side of the bed, and slide down the side, landing on the floor. Step 2 of waking up is complete.

I get myself off the floor, and drag myself to the bathroom to do my business. After splashing some water on my face, I look in the mirror, and scrutinize my appearance. I'm not anything extraordinary—I have medium length blonde hair, blue eyes, and nice skin—but that's about it.

I roll my eyes at my hair, and decide that it's definitely a pony tail kind of day. I put on my light makeup, put on a pair of jeans and a blue button up shirt, and head downstairs for my coffee. I'm Penelope Thomspon, and I'm a coffee addict. No shame. I reach for the coffee pot, and poor myself a black cup of coffee, along with a blueberry muffin. I much on the muffin and sip my coffee, until I see the stove clock indicating I only 10 minutes until I need to leave. It's sad that I leave for school before my parents are even awake for work.

I sigh as I push myself away from the table, and grab my books and car keys. The senioritis definitely hit hard—I don't even take my backpack anymore. I hop in my car and make the 15 minute drive to school in relative silence, thinking about the upcoming final exams. I'm not too worried about them. The AP tests were more intimidating than these finals are going to be. I've always been a bookworm, and even somewhat of a loner, opting to hang out with the the geeks. But they're fun. I'd much rather have an all day Star Wars marathon than go to a club.

I pull into my assigned spot, and get out of the car, searching to see if my best friend Tiffany's car is there. When I see it, I jog over, knocking on her window.

"Holy fuck! You scared me!" she says, opening the car door. I can't help but laugh. My best friend is the complete opposite of me. She has dark hair, green eyes, and olive skin, and is definitely one of the more preppy girls at school.

"Sorry," I say, poorly concealing my grin. "I just wanted to see if you were ready to face the masses."

"Sweetie, I'm always ready," she says, taking one last look in her rear view mirror to check her makeup. "I've been thinking. Do you want to go to that new vampire bar in Shreveport?" she asks, looking at me sideways.

"Umm..." I start, not really knowing what to say. "We're not old enough, are we?"

"We're 18. I can only assume they'd let us in," she says conspiratorially. "We can skip that stupid fucking senior prank, and go there tonight."

"I don't know if my parents..."

"You're 18. You can go if you want to," she says, cutting me off. "Besides, we need to blow off some steam. I'll get us some fake ID's."

I sigh, knowing that my friend is right. I do need to blow off some steam. But a vampire bar? That seemed dangerous. And I'd heard the rumors about Fangtasia—they weren't good. I head off towards my first class of the day, and listen to my AP Literature teacher drone on about _Hamlet_.

The rest of the day goes smoothly, with most teachers opting to have reviews in their classes for the upcoming finals. I seriously could have stayed home today. By the time the bell rings, I'm already half way to my car. Tiffany comes jogging up to me, tugging my arm.

"What are you gonna wear tonight?" she asks me as I throw my books in the back seat. I turn to her, and lean against the car.

"I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to wear to a vampire bar," I tell her. "You know I don't really have any dresses or anything."

She nods slowly, as if deep in though, when I see her face light up. "I've got the perfect dress for you to wear," she says enthusiastically. "Just follow me over to my place."

I wave as I get in my car, and dial my mom's phone number.

"Hey sweetie," my mom says cheerfully. "How was school?"

"Oh, uh, school was fine. Hey, I think I forgot to tell you, but the senior prank is tonight, and Tif and I were gonna go to that. I'll just be with her the rest of the afternoon," I tell my mom, hoping that she's having a bust enough day at work to not ask any questions.

"Ah, well that sounds fun," she says distractedly. "Oh, honey, I just got an order. I'll call you back?"

"Don't worry about it," I tell her. "I love you."

"Love you too," she says, before the line disconnects.

By the time I'm off the phone, I'm pulling up at Tiffany's house. Her family seriously has too much money. I walk in the front door, and head up the stairs to Tiffany's room. By the time I walk in, she's already got the dress in her hands.

"This, will make you look perfect," she says, thrusting the pale blue dress at me.

"Really? This isn't what I think when I hear 'vampire bar'." I tell her, eyeing the dress. It really is pretty, in a simple sort of way. Before I know it, she's thrusting a pair of white pumps with lace on them at me. "This looks so...virginal," I tell her.

"That's the point," she says, looking at me like I've lost my mind. When she pulls out her dress though, I can't help but gawk. It's about knee length, with an empire waist. The bottom portion is black, but the top portion is red.

"How come you get to look grown up?" I ask, nodding at the dress. She laughs, and sits down beside me.

"Sweetie, those vampires love nothing more than innocence," she says, giving me her _duh_ look again. "Now, let me do your hair tonight."

A whopping four hours later, Tiffany and I are finally ready to go to the bar. It's only about 7:30, so we wait in her room.

"You got the fake ID's, right?" I ask her for what feels like the millionth time.

"Yes, I did. Stop worrying about everything. I'm sure we'll be fine," she says rolling her eyes at me. "What are you gonna do if you meet somebody?"

"What do you mean, _meet somebody_?" I ask.

"Like, as in, sex," she says. "There are some real hotties there."

"I, uh, don't think I'm going to be looking for that," I say, frowning.

We leave at 7:45, and start the hour long drive to Shreveport. I love my best friend, but I find her taste in music absolutely horrendous. We usually end up just driving with no music when we are together. I can't seem to understand the allure with Katy Perry, like she can't understand why Nirvana was a legend.

When we pull up to the bar, we see that we beat the line. We walk up to the woman at the front door, who looks us up and down.

"Well, aren't you two sweet?" she says, taking in our appearance.

"Not really," I say, earning a smile from the female vampire.

"ID please," she says, dropping fang. "I lost the ability to tell human age a long time ago."

When we hand her our fake ID's, she just grins fangily at us, winking. "Go on in. Good luck getting out."

We walk into the bar, and I'm immediately floored by the amount of red and black. I stick out like a sore fucking thumb. The music is already pumping, and the dance floor is already packed with bodies.

"Why did you let me wear this," I yell to Tiffany over the music.

"I though it would be funny," she says with a smirk. "They'll be all over you tonight. You need to relax. I did this to get you laid."

Hearing that, I leave her on the dance floor, and head to the bar. I order myself a shot of tequila, and toss it back, charging that drink and all subsequent drinks to Tiffany's credit card.

Sitting at the bar, I get a good look at the rest of the club. I see two thrones on the stage, one of them being occupied by I can only assume the owner of the bar. He's very handsome. Yet, any man who has a throne is probably way too high maintenance.

"Who is that?" I ask the bartender.

"That's Eric Northman," he says, looking at me oddly. "He owns this place."

I sit at the bar for a little while longer, when a young man sits down next to me. He looks to be no older than maybe 25. He orders himself an AB- True Blood, and tips the bartender generously. I sneak a glance over at him, and realize that he is very good looking. He's got on a black button up shirt, black jeans, and black boots. I can see a blue tattoo peeking through the loose buttons at the top of his shirt.

The man in question looks at me briefly, and smiles, but doesn't say anything. I get up from my seat, and head towards the ladies room, needing to go after all the tequila shots. I walk in, and hear someone moaning, and the distinct sound of fangs clicking down. I run out of the bathroom, and find the man still sitting on the stool.

"I don't know who to go to with this, but there's a vampire feeding on someone in the ladies room," I say as quietly as possible.

His eyebrow shoots into his hairline before he speeds off the stool and towards the bathroom. I shake my head, not knowing if I could ever get used to vampires, and their speeding around.

I decide that I'm not mad at Tiffany anymore, and make my way onto the dance floor to find her. Instead, I'm caught around the waist by the man sitting beside me at the bar.

"Thank you for telling me," he says, extending his hand. "I'm Godric."

"It's no problem," I tell him. "I'm Penelope."

"Would you like to dance, Penelope?" he asks. When he says my name, I can't help the feeling I get in my center, wishing he was saying my name in a much different context. "You know, it was a dangerous move coming here, looking the way you do."

"Why is that?" I ask him, blushing.

"You look delectable. In a room full of vampires, the number one rule should be to wear your hair down," he whispers in my ear.

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm dancing with you, and not the big bad wolf, isn't it?" I tell him, stunned at my own behavior.

He throws his head back and laughs, guiding us around the dance floor.

"What's so funny?" I ask him.

"Some might say that I _am _the big bad wolf," he says, still laughing. "Thank you for the dance, Penelope."

After he walks away, I find Tiffany sitting in a booth with a guy. I decide to head over to her, and tell her I'm ready to go home. I'll most likely just catch a cab. I don't really feel like dying tonight because of her drunk driving.

"Hey, Tif, I'm gonna head on home, okay?" I tell her, hugging her tight.

"Alright, hun, be safe," she says before going back to her date.

I walk out of the club, and begin towards the parking lot, looking up the number for the taxi service on my phone. I don't, however, notice the very angry vampire stalking towards me, until I literally run into her.

"Sorry," I say quickly, going back to my phone.

"You're the little cunt that told Godric about me feeding," she says, as she starts to circle me.

"Hey, they sign says no feeding on premises," I tell her. I'm pretty sure it's the tequila that made me say the next part however. "It's not my fault you can't read the fucking sign."

The next think I know, I've been tackled to the ground by an angry vampire, the last thing I remember hearing being the click of her fangs.


	2. Chapter 2

I hit the ground hard—and not very gracefully. I must have blacked out for a couple seconds, though, because the vampire is no longer on top of me. I stay where I am, nervous that if I move she'll come back.

"She is gone. And will not be coming back," says a familiar voice. It's Godric. He reaches a hand out and helps me off the ground.

"Is she...did you kill her?" I ask him softly, avoiding his gaze.

"She has been ended, yes," he says, his face softening. He puts me behind him, however, and turns to face a growing crowd. "Go back inside. There is nothing to see here," he says with authority. I don't know how old he is, but people seem to listen to him.

Turning to me, he looks at me closely. "You need a ride home, yes?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess I do. I was just going to call a cab, though," I tell him, kicking off my shoes. Etiquette be damned.

"Let me drive you. Where do you live?" he says, with concern in his eyes.

"I'm all the way in Bon Temps," I say. "But I'm not going home tonight. My parents don't know I'm here. I'm supposed to be at a school thing tonight..." I trail off, noticing the flash in his eyes.

"What are you doing at a vampire bar, then?" he asks looking at me hard.

"I...uh...wanted to?" I tell him, mentally slapping myself. I could use more practice in social situations.

He groans, and rubs the bridge of his nose. "You definitely weren't supposed to be drinking alcohol then, were you?"

"Probably not," I say honestly. "I would have been anyways. It's the senior prank at my high school, and there's always booze."

"Senior prank?" he asks slowly, making a face.

"Oh, the seniors pretty much destroy the school."

"Uh huh. You put me in a precarious situation—is your friend underage?" he asks me, pulling out a cell phone.

"Yeah," I say solemnly.

"This is my child's bar. I don't want to risk him losing his business due to the immaturity of two little girls," he says roughly, grabbing my arm and pulling me back to the building.

"Hey there, buddy, don't patronize me. Okay, we fucked up. But you don't get to talk to me that way. You don't even know me. So what if I wanted to come out and relax tonight? I'm tits deep in college application, AP tests, and final exams. I'm maintaining a 4.3 GPA at my school, and wanted a drink. And I wanted that drink to not be _at school,_" I rant, poking him in the chest. While I'm working on my social skills, I should probably work on my self preservation skills, too.

Luckily for me, he doesn't do anything. He smiles slightly, and cocks an eyebrow—a ridiculously sexy eyebrow—before shaking his head. "I would recommend not trying this again. You seem intelligent. This, was not an intelligent move. You're lucky it was me who found you out and not another vampire. Namely my son. You should call your cab and go home."

"You know what? Fine," I say, grabbing my shoes and stomping off.

**GPOV**

That girl is...irksome. She could have gotten Eric into a serious amount of trouble, and for what? A good time. Godric sighs as slowly walks back into the bar.

In all honesty, he was getting tired. Jaded. After two thousand years, life was getting boring. A fuck was just that—a fuck. A feed was the same. He had no passion anymore. He had been entertaining the idea of meeting the sun for a while now, but couldn't bring himself to do that to his child.

When he walks back into the bar, he motions for his child to meet him in Eric's office. When they are alone, Godric breaks the news.

"There were two underage's in the bar tonight. One is still here, the other left. I had to kill Taryn for attacking her," Godric tells his son gently. "Taryn was also feeding on a human in the restroom."

Eric growls at the revelation. "Thank you for taking care of the situation."

"My child, I believe it is time I return to Dallas," Godric says, smiling softly.

"But you just got here."

"I have been here for two weeks Eric. I'm sorry, my son, but I have responsibilities," Godric says solemnly.

Eric doesn't say anything. Godric knows that he is just hurting—he feels it through the bond.

"When would you leave?" Eric asks after a long silence.

Godric sighs. "Do you wish for me to stay?"

"For just a while longer. I wasn't prepared for you to leave so soon," Eric says, sighing in relief. He knows that his maker will stay if he truly wishes it.

Godric nods and walks out of the office, in search of Penelope's friend. He spots a young woman in a booth with a fangbanger, and walks up to them.

"Let me see you ID," he says frankly, reaching out his hand.

"I gave it at the door," she says petulantly.

Godric just glares at her until she reaches for the ID. "No. the _real_ one."

She huffs and pulls out the real ID. Just as he thought.

"Well, Tiffany Anderson, you can be here. Technically. That drink, however, is _very _illegal. You need to leave," he says firmly, grabbing her elbow. "Can you drive?"

"I, uh, yeah," she slurs, stumbling.

Godric rolls his eyes and puts his hand out for her car keys. "Where am I taking you?"

"Bon Temps," she says already taking her heels off. "You're not going to kill me, right?

"No," he says, and unlocks the car, looking for the headlights. When they reach the car, he helps her in and buckles her into the seat.

The ride to Bon Temps is quiet. From the even breathing coming from beside him, he assumes that Tiffany is asleep. With the quiet, he has time to think about the girl from earlier—Penelope. Yes, she was bothersome. But it was because she was intelligent. She didn't back down from him. She was confident enough in herself to own her mistake. The more he thought about the girl, the more he liked her.

When she sat down next to him, he actually felt something for the first time in a while. He could see in her eyes that she had wisdom for someone well beyond her years, and if what he understood about her schooling, she had the grades to prove it—at least he figured that's what a GPA was.

Godric actually feels bad for the way he acted with the girl. He didn't really even try to get her side of the story. It was still unacceptable for her to get liquor underage, but maybe there was more to it.

He shakes his head slightly. He notices that Tiffany wakes up when they are about 10 miles away from Bon Temps.

"Tell me about your friend," he says, surprising the girl.

"Well, she's probably the smartest person I know. She loves to read. She always says that in her books, she can be anybody she wishes—she can do anything her heart desires. She likes the escape, I guess. She's spent her whole life worried about college, and from the time I've known her, she's always wanted to be a nurse. She likes to help people. She's my best friend and I love her. It's my fault we were out tonight. I pressured into coming, and told her that we would be fine with the fake ID's. She just wanted to blow off some steam," Tiffany says softly, avoiding Godric's gaze.

"Your friend sounds like an interesting girl."

"My friend is everything I always wished I could be. I was never the smart one—I used to be so jealous—she got beauty _and_ brains. Every girl wants that, deep down."

"I...I'm afraid I was a little harsh with her tonight. I've had some things troubling me, and allowed myself to be anything but kind to her. I want to make it up to her," Godric says thoughtfully. "What would she like?"

"I can tell you that she's not the knight in shining armor type," Tiffany says laughing. "She's so damn independent. The best way to get across to her is just simply talking. She likes the logical solution, not the emotional one. She's never really been emotional about anything."

Godric listens to what the girl has to say, and slowly puts together the best way to make up for his transgressions. He can't understand it—he just knows that he feels a pull towards the beautiful girl.


	3. Chapter 3

I get back to Tiffany's house, and her parents are still out—it won't surprise me if they don't come home at all tonight. I slip out of the dress and heels, and put on a pair of black yoga pants and a tank top. I pad into Tiffany's bathroom, and wash my face, letting my hair out of the elaborate updo she put it in earlier. I look and feel like shit. When we went out tonight, I didn't expect to get caught—no less by a vampire.

I sit down on the couch in the upstairs living area, and find a movie on HBO to watch while a I wait for her to get home. I feel bad about the way I acted toward Godric tonight—he was only trying to defend his child. Which leaves me wondering again how old he is. Everybody seemed to listen to him when he spoke. I huff, deciding that it isn't worth worrying about. I'll never see him again anyways.

I'm just starting to doze off, when I hear a noise outside. Assuming that it's Tiffany, I head downstairs to greet her when she comes in. I reach the door, but what I'm not prepared to see is Godric walking a stumbling Tif towards the door. I stand there, with my arms crossed, and just raise an eyebrow at him.

"I had to drive her. She was too incapacitated to drive herself," he tells me, motioning to my drunk friend.

"Thanks," I mumble. I don't know what else to say to him. I want to apologize, but don't know how.

He stands there for another minute, both of us not saying anything, waiting for the other to make a move. The silence just makes everything worse, though. Not only am I pissed at him, I can't help but notice again how attractive he is—and that just makes me more pissed.

Our stand off ends when Godric's lips turn up in a smirk.

"What?" I ask him, glaring.

"Do I turn you on, Miss Thompson?" he asks, sniffing the air.

"How dare you?!" I exclaim, taking a step back. "Actually, I think you should leave."

"Do you really mean that?" Godric asks, taking a step forward.

"You can't come in here," I tell him victoriously.

"You're right, I can't. I wanted to apologize to you, actually. I didn't mean to react so harshly back at Fangtasia. I usually have more self control than that."

"Sure as hell doesn't seem like it to me. You seem like a big 20 year old—immature," I tell him, unable to control my diarrhea of the mouth.

To my surprise, though, Godric barks out a laugh. "That would make sense. I believe I was around 22 when I was turned, although we didn't keep time like you do now," he said thoughtfully. "I really am sorry."

I huff, and cross my arms. "It's fine. I shouldn't have been there, breaking the law anyway," I say. "That was still inappropriate—what you said when you got here."

Godric smirks and there's a glint in his eye. "Was I right, though?"

"UGH! You're _insufferable_!" I tell him. "But, come on in. I need help getting Tiffany up the stairs to bed."

Godric follows me up the stairs to Tiffany's room, and he drops her on the bed. We stand there again, our second awkward silence of the evening. "I, uh, guess I should go," Godric says, motioning towards the door.

"Yeah..you probably should," I say unconvincingly. I walk him out of Tiff's room into her upstairs sitting room. We stop once we get out there, and the tension is palpable.

"You never answered me," he says, stepping towards me.

I look at him from under my lashes. "What if I said yes?"

"Then the rest is up to you."

I nod, and take a step back. "Then I need time," I tell him.

He smiles softly. "Would you allow me to take you out sometime? On a date?"

I nod enthusiastically. "I would really like that. I don't date much, and it would be nice."

We talk for a few more minutes before I walk him out, and we exchange numbers. I trudge back up to Tiff's room and get her dress off of her. I lay down next to her in her huge bed, and fall asleep with a smile on my face.

**Alright, so this wasn't as long as normal chapters, but I didn't really know what to do with these two in this chapter, and I didn't want to just BS my way to normal length. I hope you enjoy anyways!**


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